Power creep and magic

#1
Hello everyone! I don't yet have a webnovel on Royalroad and that is what I would like to discuss and ask for assistance. I have been working on the ideas behind this story - I don't want to reveal too much about it. I should get to the point, I guess. One of the largest pet peeves I have is when a story does not handle power creep well. Or even a show for that matter.

     For example, in shows like Dragon Ball Super, or any of the Dragon Ball shows the power levels are increasing way too high, and it is destroying other core aspects of the show. Then in other shows like Avatar: the last airbender, the power creep is managed exceedingly well. This was accomplished through a series of rules, and that is what I am here for. I would like to ask the community to help me develop a set of rules for the magic/power usage in my setting. My setting is made such that I can adapt it to most reasonable rule systems.

I am open to suggestions or articles/books that may provide examples for creating a magic system that will help me control power creep in my setting. I know this hasn't been very informative for what I want but that is sort of the reason behind this. I don't know what magic system I want, as I'm not aware of how to handle the power creep.

- Shaman Matol

RE: Power creep and magic

#2
Power creep is actually managed arbitrarily. Even with established rules, one can run into the deep end if they are careless or determine that the rule of cool is worth it. If you don't want power creep to afflict your story, all one needs to do is not have a stick evolve into a death star.

A major contributing factor is a "need" to make each fight more riveting and  high-stakes than the last, this works for shows like Bleach, Dragonball Z, and Gurren Lagann , due to tone and narrative accommodations, and managed to be massive successes in their own rights. Astronomical power levels directly represent the character's herculean efforts in both will and heart. Before coming to an intimate understanding of power creep, one must realize that the trope isn't bad in and of itself. It's only bad when handled badly. Exactly what constitutes the "badly" part will change from story to story. 

Don't let a convoluted magic system get in the way of your story. It should be a trope to aide plot aspects, not beat down another trope. 

Buuuuuuut. If it would do more good than harm, tv tropes has a neat page that can help you: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/WriteAFunctionalMagicSystem
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